Each and every day, I lose myself in the immediacy of the moment, find myself in the joy of the movement. Each and every day, I learn more and more...and, within that new knowledge, realize that I have so much farther to travel.

Shallom Johnson is a contemporary dance artist, visual artist and freelance writer based in Vancouver BC. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Contemporary Dance from Simon Fraser University, and has been active in the Vancouver dance community as a choreographer, performer, and instructor since her graduation in 2004.

Shallom is interested in art in public spaces, site-specific performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and community involvement. Her street-based artwork, performance and photography examines and documents who gets to make art, where it gets made, and where/how the creative process and product is viewed. In the future, she hopes to explore this theme further via new media and technologies, new methods of creation, collaboration and community engagement.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Omnia Mutantur and Open Source Dance

So an old friend, Diego Maranan, is currently living in the Philippines, writing about life and movement here. We went to school together in the dance program at SFU, and he is dearly missed by myself and all of our mutual friends. Diego is currently working on a project called Omnia Mutantur. Diego is also the founder of Open Source Dance, which you can read more about below.

Anyways, I liked the idea. I am not sure if I am ready to begin such an undertaking, but the concept intrigues me. Maybe I will try to incorporate it into my life for the next few months or so, maybe longer.

This is the project (link to original post above):

Create a movement sequence. Doesn't matter how long it is, doesn't matter what style it is, how big or how small. Make sure it is repeatable... whatever that means to you.

When you think you're ready, film yourself performing it.

Then, everyday, you must rehearse this sequence once, and only once.

One day, when you think you have an excellent reason why cannot rehearse this sequence anymore, perform this piece in public. Have this performance filmed.

Notes: It doesn't matter how long it takes before you perform this in public. What matters is that you must reach the point where you decide that it would be impossible for you to rehearse this sequence any longer, and that you need to perform this publicly.

Option 1: Everytime you rehearse the sequence, film yourself.Option 2: Source the movement sequence from any of the other processes described on this page.Variation 1: The day you fail to rehearse your sequence, the very next day you have to perform it in public.

Variation 2: Get other people to do the same thing. Decide what exactly this instruction means.

Variation 3: By public performance, I mean at least 5,000 people need to see it. Figure out along the way how you can do this.

Variation 4: Instead of rehearsing until you have no choice but to perform the sequence, set yourself a timeline, a minimum of 9 months. I suggest around 11 years.

So...anyone up for the challenge?

And to finish my second thought: Diego's also working on a project called Open Source Dance, in which artists can license their work under the Creative Commons database, inviting other artists to browse, sample, reuse, and build upon existing choreographic works. The new works then have the option of being licenses and registered on the site, creating a geneology of works, " a historical trail that maps the influences of each work registered on OpenSourceDance.org". Sound intriguing? It is. Click here for more details.